370
Aptavani-2
Muni sat down to eat he happened to look up. He was shocked
by what he saw. There was a huge bell hanging directly above
his head, and it appeared that the bell could fall any moment.
The King had deliberately hung the bell above the Muni’s head.
The bell was suspended by a thin and transparent rope. The
Muni became so anxious that he ate as quickly as he could. As
he ate, the King coaxed him into enjoying the food and eating
more, but the munis’ chit was stuck on the bell hanging over him,
all the while wondering what would happen if the bell were to
fall upon him. After he was done with the meal, as the King
served him after-meal refreshments, he asked, “Maharaj how
was your food? What did you like the most?” The Muni was a
very honest man; those who practice penance are not deceitful,
they only have a problem of the ego. He told the king the truth,
“Your honor, May I tell you the truth? My chit was stuck in fear,
on the bell hanging above my head, and so I don’t even know
what I ate!” That is when Janak Videhi said, “Maharaj, your chit
was not present on what you were eating. That is how my chit
is. It is constantly absent from the worldly life. My chit is never
in all this wealth or the queens. I am always in the state of the
Self.” That is how Janak Videhi was.
How can the world dissolve into oblivion? That is the
reason why we have gathered here in satsang. Here the world
becomes absent from one’s memory (vismrut) naturally,
otherwise this state is not possible for even a fraction of a
second. These rich sheths are prepared to pay thousands of
rupees for just one hour of such an experience. Yet it is not
possible to be so. On the contrary, whatever you try to forget
is precisely what comes back with full force. If you decide you
do not want to think about a certain person when you sit down
to do samayik, that person will be the first person that will come
in the mind or the chit. Whereas here, ‘we’ are naturally and
spontaneously oblivious to the world. How many times does your
chit go to your home or to your shop when you are sitting here?